Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit

by Matt McCarthy

A hilairious inside baseball account of year in the minor leagues

Odd Man Out captures the gritty essence of our national pastime as it is played outside the spot­light. Matt McCarthy, a decent left-handed starting pitcher on one of the worst squads in Yale history, earned a ticket to spring training as the twenty-sixth-round draft pick of the 2002 Anaheim Angels. This is the hilarious inside story of his year with the Provo Angels, Anaheim's minor league affiliate in the heart of Mormon country, as McCarthy navigates the ups and downs of an antic, grueling season, filled with cross-country bus trips, bizarre rivalries, and wild locker-room hijinks.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Autobiography, Biography Memoir

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Matt McCarthy is an assistant professor of medicine at Cornell and author of Superbugs (2019), The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly (2015), and Odd Man Out (2009).
New book giveaway: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the 2002 ML baseball draft, Matt McCarthy, a Yale lefty with a fastball that had occasional familiarity with 90+mph was drafted in the 26th round by the Anaheim Angels. He was urged by friends and relations to keep a journal of his experiences, and those journals form the basis of this 2009 story of his single season in the sun of professional baseball.

When the book came out, there was a bit of a firestorm. McCarthy got some of his names, dates, and possibly facts wrong enough that the New York Times highlighted them in two articles. (The links are at the bottom of this review.) It does sound to me that he got a few things wrong. It is even possible that his characterization of this player or that might cause those people some harm. I have no way of knowing the truthfulness of McCarthy’s writing. But I am familiar with how difficult it can be to reconstruct events several years after the events, based on handwritten notes, so am inclined to give McCarthy the benefit of the doubt, and ascribe no malice to his writing. I expect that mistakes which do appear in the book are simply off the plate and are not intentional beanballs. In several instances, I expect that people are simply embarrassed at some of the revelations and it is easier to deny them than to take responsibility.


Matt McCarthy

There are some items in the book that might be troublesome for some of the players. McCarthy describes behavior between players that indicates a gay inclination. And that is a barrier that MLB has not yet faced up to. McCarthy also reports on his Rookie League manager’s antics. These include directing his pitcher to hit an opposing batter in retaliation for Provo players having been hit, some mood-swinging, and a remarkable and humorous substitute for the team’s rally monkey. Some players are reported to be milking their disabled list status to avoid playing, and the ethnic separation of players is distinctive, with all Hispanic players, of whatever national origin, designated as “Dominicans” and all others as “Americans.”

So what’s the big deal? Frankly, I do not think there is one. I have read my share of baseball books, and I did not find this one to be exceptional. There were some bits of information that were not at all surprising, such as the use of steroids, (The only surprise might be that there were players who were not using) and the horrors of massive bus rides, the low-wage life that most of these players endure, and the mix of fresh blood on the way up and older players on the way down, high draft picks being handled with kid gloves, and lower draft picks being treated with far less kindness. Class as defined by draft rank may be different from class as defined by wealth or race, but the results are similar. The eagerness of some families in Provo to take in players for a season was a bit of news for me. Aside from a laugh here or there it was mostly pedestrian material, IMHO. That the coach was a character offered some spice. And a ballpark visit by Larry King, his much younger trophy wife and a vile offspring was amusing in a horrifying way.

While McCarthy writes in a very readable, breezy style, there are plenty of baseball books that offer more substance. Jim Bouton’s Ball Four remains the standard beaver-shoot-and-tell example if you are looking for player shenanigans. Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game is another that offers a look at the minors, although for a much more defined moment in time. Slouching Toward Fargo by Neal Karlen gives the reader some sense of the non-ML minors.

McCarthy, realistic about his pro-ball prospects, always kept a hand in his other career option, and continued working and studying towards a life in medicine, no, not sports medicine, but infectious diseases. He is now a practicing physician.

Odd Man Out, worth a look, particularly for those with an interest in minor league baseball, is neither a grand slam nor a strikeout, but more of a seeing eye single ahead of a stolen base.

============================= EXTRA STUFF

Links to McCarthy's personal and Twitter pages

He has written two more books, neither about baseball:
The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly, 2015 - about his intern year (the medical minors?) and Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic, in 2019

Two articles noted in the review, from The New York Times, both by Benjamin Hill and Alan Schwarz, both published March 2, 2009
Errors Cast Doubt on a Baseball Memoir and
Excerpts From a Disputed Baseball Memoir

And a more respectful interview - Matt McCarthy, author of 'Odd Man Out,' talks with USA TODAY by Dan Friedell

[Kid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like most of Matt McCarthy's teammates on the Provo Angels minor league team where he spent one season, I'm sick and tired of Ivy League bullshit.

A dude pitches on a losing team at Yale, gets drafted in like the 25th round and then writes a book about his one season playing minor league ball. What's remarkable about McCarthy's book is not the casual entrenched racism and homophobia that is middle America's stock in trade - because who is shocked that every asshole in this country hates fags and foreigners? It's more that this book is a big whatevs of poorly drawn characters, sloppy reportage (this is suspected to be part of the illustrious 'memoirs that are kinda faked' crew along with James Frey and company)and typical Ivy league condescension of people who are perceived to be less intelligent or worldly than our esteemed narrator. McCarthy's assumed entitlement leaks onto the pages with the misremembered facts and off-handed comments about his teammates' quaint faith in God or casual dabbling in steroids.

Add to all this that McCarthy's tale is told from the safe confines of the hospital where he's now a doing his residency.

There are more interesting stories to be found in the minor leagues and there are way better books by pitchers who have struggled in the minors (see Jim Bouton's Ball Four). . .

I did finish it though. . .but this is not a sports book I would recommend especially since a number of factual errors have been brought to light recently.

See this link for details: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/spo...

[Mike Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of criticism of this book for time/place/statistical mistakes -- most of which read something like "McCarthy describes this happening on July 15 but so-and-so didn't join the team until July 30." To place this criticism in the context of the book, first of all, I don't think the author makes a single reference to a specific date of a game in the whole book -- so fact checkers FIRST have to figure out what date McCarthy is IMPLYING something occurred and THEN they can tell us all it didn't happen that day. Ugh. Who cares.

I think most readers of minor league stories are interested in the atmosphere and experience of that time -- and this book is a plausibly real memoir of that. Sure, McCarthy's not a star, wasn't really expected to be a star, and so his story lacks celebrity glitz. This book is NOT an expose or even much of a paparazzi-esque candid look at future big-leaguers -- in retrospect, it is an easy and fast read, light on plot, and nothing really revelatory/super-insightful. But for armchair baseball, it works for me.

[Marcus Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read. Honest and funny. I will think of it often as I am watching my local AA Biloxi Shuckers and wonder what kind of stories could come out of their locker room.

[Gary Anderson]

Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit (2009) is Matt McCarthy’s memoir of his year pitching for the Provo Angels, the rookie-level team in the Anaheim Angels organization. Fresh out of Yale, drafted in the twenty-sixth round, and signed with the minimum bonus of $1,000, McCarthy was always a long shot to make it to the major leagues, but given the opportunity to play professional baseball, he was determined to make the most of it.

McCarthy’s story is delivered in an earnest but breezy style that makes it a good armchair (or beach chair) read. His teammates and coaches are presented as he sees them: in some cases as tiresome oafs and in other cases as talented but maybe not-talented-enough athletes who don’t quite know what to do with themselves off the field. McCarthy names names in Odd Man Out, and players who went on to big-league careers are shown as they were in the early stages of their careers. (Former White Sox and Red Sox pitcher Bobby Jenks is given a particularly unflattering treatment.)

McCarthy is honest about his own development and lack thereof. This self-effacing tone lends crediblity to his other perceptions of the team. For example, this minor league clubhouse was segregated between “Americans” and “Dominicans.” The “Dominican” label applied to any player of Hispanic or Latin heritage, regardless of his country of origin. McCarthy makes clear that this dynamic was common in clubhouses around the league. McCarthy also provides several examples of how players who theoretically had the most talent based on their draft round and signing bonues tended to be the most lackadaisical in how they approached the rookie league and the most arrogant in how they related to their teammates and coaches. As an independent league fan, I was also interested in a brief episode near the end of Odd Man Out revealing the minor league attitude toward independent leagues.

Odd Man Out came on my radar after being featured by @reading.baseball on Instagram. A few comments on that post indicated that this book has been criticized by some as factually inaccurate in places. That could be true, but I didn’t pick up on any of it, and I haven’t seen the details. Even if Odd Man Out is more truthful than factual, I still recommend it as an insightful look at the always-fascinating life in the minor (and independent) leagues.

[Autumn · Rating 1 out of 5]

An interesting, but ultimately unsatisfying read. It is the story of a minor league pitcher who lasts just over one year in the minors. There are a lot of behind the scenes stories about the lives (on field and off) of the players on his minor league team. There was some controversy when then book came out about some of the stories in the book, but I don't know how anyone could be that shocked about the antics of young, uneducated, sexed- up young men living thousands of miles away from home in the middle of Utah. The stories are actually pretty tame - McCarthy only briefly mentions steroids and states up front that amphetamines were everywhere and leaves it at that. The most unsatisfying part of the book is everything McCarthy leaves out. Does he keep a journal during the season because he thinks he might write a book later, or has he always kept a journal? He mentions that he starts Harvard Medical School just 6 months after ending his baseball career, but doesn't say whether it is something he has been thinking about or how he came to that decision. He sort of tries to be one of the guys, despite his Ivy League education, but the fact that he lives with a wealthy host family and can get into Harvard Medical School after baseball sets him apart. He acknowledges this, but the reader isn't given any insight about how this makes him feel or how it affects how seriously he takes his baseball career.

[Tom Gase · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't like this book that much basically because except for maybe one character, who the reader doesn't meet until the end, you hate everyone. All the athletes are racist, homophopic and just plain dumb. This includes the writer. Well, maybe he's not dumb since he went to Yale, but you end up not liking him at all. For one, all the facts are wrong I guess, since there has been a lot of controversy around it. Also, he calls someone else a mole in the book, although HE'S DOING THE SAME EXACT THING. He makes fun of mormons (which by the way I'm not) but then uses them and their huge mansion.

That being said, it was a page-turner, for all the wrong reasons. Some interesting stuff too on some MLB players such as Joe Saunders (who comes off as too arrogant), Bobby Jenks (even more arrogant), Erick Abyar and Alberto Caispo, and then briefly Howie Kendrick (who comes off as a super nice guy) and Casey Kotchman (nice guy)and his Dad, who manages McCarthy's team.

For die-hard Angel fans, since it takes place in their system during the 2002 year, but there are better baseball books out there and would not recommend this to just a casual baseball fan. There are even better minor league books out there.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting and readable, but also depressing, warts-and-all look inside the world of minor league baseball. Depressing mainly because there are a lot of warts. The author does not spare himself. He's not very likeable. He is also a little too condescending and bitter to pull off the "wacky world of baseball" tone I think he was trying for. There is a moment near the end of the book when a spring training coach yells at a group of pitchers he is working with, including the author, because they are all self-obsessed and don't understand that they will win or lose as a team. You would think that this would be a moment of epiphany for the author, who has spent his entire first season in the minors being competitive with his teammates and neurotically obsessing about his individual performance, but you would be wrong. He wraps up the anecdote by stating confidently that all of the pitchers standing there knew that the coach was wrong. Perhaps not surprisingly, a few weeks later the author is released from the Angels organization. He doesn't strike me as a guy given to self-reflection so I guess it has never crossed his mind that the two things might be connected. Let's hope he's a more empathetic and compassionate doctor than he was a teammate!

[Pete · Rating 2 out of 5]

Matt McCarthy reminds me of Paul Shirley. Neither seems to realize how cocky they come off, and neither can write nearly as well as they think they can. The problem with being a semi-literate pro-athlete is that, relative to your peers, you seem like Shakespeare, but to the rest of us, you write as well as the average blogger.
Other notes:
Probably the only baseball book to begin a chapter with a "The Waste Land" reference.
The Bobby Jenks anecdotes are entertaining but not surprising.
I read this book in a day, and you can, too.

[Craig Pittman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matt McCarthy grew up in Florida playing Little League ball, earned a spot as a southpaw pitcher on a dismal Yale University college team and then somehow became the twenty-sixth-round draft pick of the 2002 Anaheim Angels. He was assigned to their minor-league affiliate in Utah, the Provo Angels, for a year, and while there McCarthy kept a brutally honest journal. This memoir is the result.

First the good: McCarthy is an excellent writer and his prose goes down easy. He's self-deprecating and he knows how to set up a scene and he's got a good ear for dialogue. He also does not shy away from depicting some of the really ugly stuff that went on in the locker room and elsewhere: the blatant racism toward non-white players, the homophobic cracks between players and coaches; the discussions about steroid use and abuse.

Now my criticism: In relaying those ugly aspects of minor league life, McCarthy never offers a judgment of his teammates or coaches. He simply relays the information and lets the readers absorb it unfiltered. While he generally does not take part in any of the bad stuff, he doesn't condemn it either -- not then and not now. Perhaps he was trying to be a mirror, showing exactly what he saw without any commentary, but I think what would have elevated this story above its current quality is if McCarthy had put some of these things into a broader context and talked about WHY he chose to be an observer but not a participant -- neither joining in nor trying to stop it.

One of the most affecting scenes in the book comes when a Hispanic pitcher is ordered to throw at an opposing batter and refuses to do it. Despite having thrown a good game so far, he's yanked by the coach and sent to the showers for his refusal. McCarthy goes into the locker room and finds the guy with his head in his hands. He explains to McCarthy he didn't sign up to hurt people, just to play baseball. McCarthy offers him sympathy, but that's all. He doesn't become an advocate for the guy with the coaches, nor does he say what he would have done in similar circumstances.

McCarthy is out of baseball now -- the end of his pitching career sent him to med school -- so it would have been instructive, too, to get his medical viewpoint on some of the bizarre suggestions his coaches made on changing his pitching stance. Seems to me his best advice came from fellow players who told him he was tipping off batters to his pitches with his set-up. Perhaps that's why he chose to play his own emotions -- except for when he's finally cut -- so close to the chest.

[Brett T · Rating 2 out of 5]

As Yale senior Matt McCarthy neared graduation, he was like a lot of his classmates in trying to figure out what was next for him in life. The only difference was that he was looking to find a baseball organization to pay him to pitch for them, something he managed when he was drafted in 2002 by the Anaheim Angels organization. He spent a year playing for the rookie-ball Provo Angels in the Pioneer League and went to spring training in 2003 before being cut. In 2009, now a practicing doctor, he wrote about those experiences in Odd Man Out.

Rookie-level ball features a wide mix of players -- hot high school prospects who've been signed for seven-figure contracts, unknowns that the organization is willing to risk the rookie ball salary on, college grads who are seeing if their college stuff is really something someone wants to pay money to see happen, players really too old but who the organization is giving one last chance to show something. McCarthy meets them all during his year in Provo, a tee-totaling Utah community that is not an exact fit for a group of young men with a lot of time and testosterone on their hands. Odd Man relates the long bus rides across the northern plains and the colorful lineup of the Provo Angels. McCarthy finds himself questioning his commitment to baseball when it seems has no way to solve the problem of consistency -- he'll pitch well one night and serve up batting practice the next. Different coaches in the program offer him different solutions (no one suggests breathing through his eyelids) but none seem to work. Although his Yale education would seem to set him apart from his teammates, it's really just one of the quirks they all have, which McCarthy detailed in journals he kept through the season and used when he wrote his book.

Or did he? After an excerpt was published in Sports Illustrated, some of the people McCarthy names said that they didn't remember doing or saying anything like what he wrote that they did or said. New York Times writers did some investigating and saw that McCarthy said some things happened when they couldn't realistically have happened. For his part, McCarthy stood by his manuscript even though he wouldn't produce the journals he said were contemporary accounts of the events he wrote about.

My guess is spotty memories, exaggerated and embellished tales and journal entries that aren't as detailed as McCarthy says they are combine to cause most of the inaccuracies and disputed stories. Plus some of his teammates might not have known they were being documented and acted in ways they would rather not admit to. Odd Man Out is an easy and largely fun read with a mostly likable if quirky cast that show a few cracks here and there. Given that McCarthy took his notes and is writing about experiences that happened when he barely into his 20s, there's not a lot of reflection going on or much to add to other books about of the weird world of minor league baseball. The largely surface-level narrative and questions about some of the just-a-little-too-perfect sequences and events make this an excellent buy when you pick it up at the local library's "clear the shelves" $1.00 apiece book sale.

Original available here.

[Tim Basuino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jim Bouton’s “Ball Four” remains the best expose of a baseball season I have read to date. Part of what made that book so intriguing was the fact that it was essentially the first of its type – Bouton’s description of the 1969 Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros took the nation (if not the world) by storm – up to that point the general idea was that ballplayers generally toed the company line, and were generally unable to think for themselves. To put it mildly, “Ball Four” altered that perception.

Since then, there have been various attempts to replicate Bouton’s effort, with mixed degrees of success. Until I found “Odd Man Out” at a used bookstore, I had not heard of Matt McCarthy, and given his career, that’s not the least bit surprising. The book details McCarthy’s exploits during the 2002 season with the Provo Angels, Anaheim’s Pioneer League affiliate.

Some of his adventures were not terribly surprising, i.e. minor leaguers don’t get paid a lot, so they have to supplement their income in the off season, they look around for girls, and they like fast food. But what makes this book worthy are the details I hadn’t thought of:

1. White and Dominican players didn’t mix well (come to think of it, my limited view of Major League dugouts and warmups would not contradict that).
2. Casey Kotchman’s dad was a minor league manager, and a rather amusing one at that – certainly he seemed much more amicable than Ball Four’s Joe Schultz.
3. The residency options of a Rookie League player (discounted rates at a hotel, a sponsor program, or sharing an apartment).
4. The number of future MLB players that McCarthy played with and against – granted it’s a case of sample bias, but I’d always thought that a minor league team wouldn’t have many players I’d heard of many years later.
By and large, a good, quick read. And a good start to McCarthy’s post-baseball career in the medical field.

[Jennifer Arnold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Matt McCarthy was an Ivy League pitcher on a losing Yale baseball team and a biophysics major (and probably the only minor leaguer doing genetic research during the off season) drafted in the 26th round by the Angels only because he was a left-handed pitcher (fastest way to the Show, as they say). The book chronicles his brief and harldly brilliant baseball career in the minors with the Provo Angels.

Growing up in a town with a minor league team (the Dunedin Blue Jays - who ate at the same hole-in-the-wall breakfast place my family loved, Iris's, which was right across Douglas Ave. from the stadium) and with a family full of baseball fans (Rays season tix in the bad years), I was intrigued by the possibilities of McCarthy's story and, while it's not a bad book, it's not a great piece of sports writing either. It was interesting to learn who got called up and who washed out, with heartwarming stories and tragedies on both sides. McCarthy himself lasted a little over one season before being released and starting med school.

(Also, what's up with all the doctors writing books? First Beat the Reaper and now this? Dudes, you're ruining the curve for the rest of us.)

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find autobiographical sports stories very hit or miss for the most part, but McCarthy hits the mark perfectly in Odd Man Out.

Unlike many authors in this genre, McCarthy steers clear of both eye roll-inducing self-aggrandizement and dull statistically-driven ramblings.

His account of his brief time in minor league baseball paints a quirky, charming and realistic picture of what's it's like to play professional baseball at its lowest level. His witty, captivating account of his turn in the minors succeeds where other similar books have failed, perhaps because McCarthy seems to be a better writer than he ever was baseball player.

His self-awareness of that, coupled with his gift of being able to somehow fit in among players with whom he had very little in common, results in a story that seems to be told at once by someone with an insider perspective and by someone who was an outsider looking in.

Beyond the colorful characters and antics which are de rigueur in minor league baseball lore, McCarthy gives us one of the most humanizing accounts of the sport that I've come across.

[shen kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been intrigued by athletes' lives off the field and what goes on in the locker room. This book gained some notoriety over the disputed veracity of some of the details. I'm sure you can easily google what those are. I've reviewed the cited alleged inaccuracies and feel that while some of the details may muddled, they don't delude from the tone or the major events in the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about some baseball myths (slump-busting, pitching to color), what players talk about in the locker room (pretty much what I've always imagined, but still riveting), and the struggles of making it to the pros.

My only quibble is that McCarthy isn't the most sympathetic narrator. Maybe it's my Ivy league bias, but he does come off condescending and holier-than-thou (and rightfully so in some cases) to his teammates (especially to a roommate that is religious). I know he portrays himself as an outcast, but even some of the friendships he makes on the team don't seem genuine.

That aside, if you enjoyed "Major League" or those documentaries like "Inside the NFL", this is a excellent, fast read.

[Sam Choi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining very quick read (1 business trip). The book is about a guy who barely makes it into the minors, and spends one season with the single A team. It's reasonably well-written, and while the characters are not particularly well-developed, a couple of them are memorable. The interesting thing about the story is not the characters, or even the story itself (the team is reasonably successful, but there's hardly a climax), but the little observations, quirks, and light analysis of life as a minor leaguer. Overall, I enjoyed it, and I'd recommend it to people who like baseball, sports stories ... or blog-type narratives. The events take place in 2000 (or was is 2002) ... so one really interesting part for me (as a follower of baseball) is that he mentions the minor league performances of some now-major leaguers. It reminds me quite a bit of The Veracruz Blues by Mark Winegardner.

[Josh C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

In one sentence: I kept going back to Barnes and Noble until I finished reading it, but I refused to just buy it and take it home because I didn't want to give the author any money.

It's a compelling narrative of McCarthy's time in the minors, but he comes across as every bit as intolerable as the teammates he slags -- and he doesn't seem to realize it. People comparing this to Ball Four must not have gotten much from Jim Bouton's humility in that volume, because there was certainly none in McCarthy's writing. Humility is what makes a tell-all tolerable. Without that it's just condescending voyeurism.

[Michael Nye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odd Man Out is a memoir of one man's year in the minor leagues. McCarthy pitched for Yale and then was drafted in the 21st round by the Anaheim Angels and assigned to their Provo club out of spring training. Hilarity ensues.

The writing is solid; nothing groundbreaking but no cliches either. McCarthy is charming, smart, and observant, witnessing all his teammates flaws and strengths without sentimentality. There are tons go great anecdotes here, and certainly dozens more had to be left out, but this is a fun, entertaining read in the spirit of Ball Four. Any baseball fan will enjoy this book.

[RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN · Rating 5 out of 5]

RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: “IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?..SHADES OF “BALL-FOUR” & “BULL-DURHAM”.
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The author Matt McCarthy is currently a medical intern in New York… prior to being an intern he attended Harvard Medical School… and before that… he attended Yale University… and majored in biophysics. He also was a “moderately” successful left-handed-pitcher… on Yale’s unsuccessful varsity baseball team… and here is where… this always hysterical… always blatantly honest… truth… is stranger than fiction… baseball odyssey… originates. Matt… in the tradition of two irreverent baseball classics… “Ball Four”… and “Bull Durham”… takes you on an unfiltered… guided tour… inside the locker room… into the dugout… into the hotels… and onto the seventeen-hour bus rides… as he chases his childhood dream… of being a Major League baseball player. The author pulls no punches… starting with his Yale campus visit… seeking a college invitation… to his one-in-a-thousand chance at a New York Yankee prospect tryout… to his… crossing his fingers… during the 2002 Major League baseball draft… where he was selected in the twenty-first-round by the Anaheim Angels. Though there were an abundance of more talented amateur players available… the fact that he was a scarce commodity… i.e.: “a left-handed-pitcher”… he was given an opportunity… that otherwise… may not have been available.

While players dream their entire life… about multi-million dollar signing bonuses… and many players… actually receive them… Matt signed for a ONE-THOUSAND-DOLLAR-BONUS. Part of the standard contract included Article XVI: “I WAS HENCEFORTH PROHIBITED FROM ENGAGING IN AUTOMOBILE OR MOTORCYCLE RACING, HANG GLIDING, FENCING, PARACHUTING, SKYDIVING, BOXING, WRESTLING, KARATE, JUDO, FOOTBALL, BASKETBALL, SKIING, HOCKEY, OR ANY OTHER SPORT “INVOLVING A SUBSTANTIAL RISK OF PERSONAL INJURY.” Matt didn’t care… he said: “IF IT SAID I WAS ALSO PROHIBITED FROM USING THE RESTROOM, I STILL WOULD’VE SIGNED IT.”

Starting with the Angel’s rookie spring training camp… self-doubt regarding his talent… in comparison to… other high-priced rookie’s… increased every day… and that reality… continued to grow… and be proven… achingly true… throughout the year-plus… humorous… and emotional… adventure… that the reader… is lucky enough to share with the “team”. Being that there have never been too many successful professional ballplayers from Yale… Matt is constantly having barbs thrown at him… about his possible intelligence… and other Ivy League shortcomings. Depending on the circumstance… he a times admits he’s a genius… at other times… he says I never went to class… I just played baseball. At the rookie camp… real-life… from outside of Yale’s cloistered environment… rattle Matt’s previously sheltered life… such as when… a rumor hit camp “that a pitcher from Double-A Little Rock who threw ONE-HUNDRED-MILES-PER-HOUR WAS BEING DEMOTED TO MESA FOR THREATENING TO KILL HIS COACH.” The rumor was true… Bobby Jenks… who was raised in the backwoods of Idaho… and only played one year of high school ball… before dropping out… “at eighteen he’d been six-feet-three-inches… two-hundred-eighty pounds”… and threw one-hundred-miles-per-hour. (Jenks would wind up pitching in every game of the 2005 World Series… even getting the final out… as the Chicago White Sox won their first World Championship in EIGHTY-EIGHT-YEARS!)

From training camp… Matt is assigned to the Provo Utah Angel minor league team… and the first thing he learns… is not to go into the showers… the same time as the Dominican players. Among the many lessons learned by young ballplayers… and the reader… is that the white and Dominican players totally separate themselves. What all the young men… learn quickly… regardless… of race… is that… the odds are very high… that they’ll never make it to the big leagues. The absurdity of daily life in the minor leagues… is at times… side-splitting… such as the first time a young fan asked the author for his autograph:

“WOULD YOU LIKE AN AUTOGRAPH?” “YES. YES SIR.” “I WAS GRINNING FROM EAR TO EAR. IN MY FOUR YEARS AT YALE I HAD NEVER BEEN ASKED TO SIGN A THING… WHO SHOULD I MAKE IT OUT TO?... TO MY BEST FRIEND… YOUR BEST FRIEND? WHAT’S HIS NAME?...HIS NAME IS SPORTY… SPORTY?... THAT’S AN INTERESTING NAME… HE’S MY HAMSTER… I SMILED AND PRESSED THE PEN TO THE BALL. MY FIRST AUTOGRAPH… AND IT WAS TO A RODENT.”

Or when the Provo minor league team had “LARRY-KING-NIGHT”… the following conversation between the players took place: “WHO THE HELL IS LARRY KING?... NO IDEA….DON’T KNOW, DON’T CARE… HE’S A BOXING GUY-A PROMOTER OR SOMETHING. USE TO WORK WITH MIKE TYSON… OH YEA?... THE BLACK GUY WITH THE CRAZY HAIR?... YEAH… MY TEAMMATES WERE MORE THAN A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED WHEN LARRY KING’S TINY, WHITE SHRIVELED BODY CAME INTO THE DUGOUT A FEW MINUTES BEFORE GAME TIME… THAT’S LARRY KING?... I THOUGHT HE WAS BLACK…. THIS GUY LOOKS LIKE A LITTLE RAISIN… WHAT’S THIS GUY FAMOUS FOR ANYWAY? HE’S A TALK SHOW HOST… IS IT A SPORTS SHOW?... NO.”

This story will shower you in laughter… and also sadness… and even some tears… as young men’s… hopes and dreams… are shattered… and Matt heads to New Haven after his first season… “to investigate the mechanisms by which neurons in the hippocampus were able to communicate with one another.”

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting perspective on life in the minor leagues.

[Doug Farry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the book, “Odd Man Out”, by Matt McCarthy. I looked up memoirs that were related to baseball and this book popped up as one of the first options. I was intrigued by the cover and by the Title. This was more of a light and fun read. All of the stories that Matt tells throughout the book brings fun food while also talking about more serious topics. It is definitely not a challenging read and it would be a fun read for a lot of people who are interested in sports, especially baseball.
The book introduces his recruitment process, to his experience in college, to getting drafted. He spent only 1 year with the Angels Minor League team in Provo, Utah. In Provo was BYU, a very Mormon place and many of the players there had to adjust to the Mormon lifestyle while trying to play ball and get ready for the Major Leagues. McCarthy dives into the behind the scenes of the game, where the Hispanics and Americans were divided like there was no issue and it tackled the popularity of steroids and cheating. After all the fun getting drafted, you get little to no money, living in terrible conditions, long bus rides and constant fast food. With the amount of fun stories McCarthy has to offer with his one year with the organization, there are lots of painful and agonizing times that go along with it.
I thought this book was fantastic. The variety of famous baseball players mentioned, the story of his recruiting process, to all the fun stories that he had with his teammates, it overall made it fun to read because it felt like you were right there with him in the locker room. He told his fun stories just as good as his not so fun ones, where he teaches his audience what he had to go through and what little fun he had at times, even though his dream was to make it to the Major Leagues one day. With all of the ups and downs he went through his baseball career, he was able to tell a compelling story teaching his audience his lifestyle as a professional baseball player.
I would suggest this book to people who are interested in sports. People who enjoy baseball will relate to this book a lot more to the casual sports fan, or non baseball fan. However, even if you don’t enjoy sports, reading his stories will inspire and lift your spirits up because of the way McCarthy speaks. I would recommend this book for High School students and older, just because there is some language that is a little sensitive to younger audiences that might not get what he is referencing, but it is overall one of the best books I have ever read and other audiences would appreciate his work too.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matt McCarthy was a pitcher on the Yale baseball team that had a horrible record. His personal statistics were also not all that great. Yet, he was something that all major leagues teams were always looking for, a lefthanded thrower that could occasionally get batters out. While his velocity was only in the mid-eighties, there was at least the potential that he could improve on that over time. For these reasons, the Anaheim Angels drafted him, paid him the minimum bonus of $1,000 and invited him to their spring training camp. This book is his history of that year where he was a professional baseball player.
McCarthy was assigned to the Provo Angels in the very low minor leagues. It is a short season with long journeys, the players log thousands of miles on the team bus during the season. Sometimes, they arrive in their destination in the morning after hours on the bus only to play a game later that day. The bus is not in the best of shape, the air conditioning often does not work.
Some of the player escapades are expected, such as the easy women in the cities. Much of the humor expressed by the players and coaches is crude and vulgar, which is also no surprise given the age and gender of the population. However, there are some very deep insights into the minor league culture. What is astonishing is that the Latin players and the white players have almost no interaction. Even in the more intimate locations such as the clubhouse and dugout, there is almost no communication and little desire to do so. The Latin players are all referred to as Dominican, independent of their country of origin.
It is a sad and puzzling aspect of the story, given that approximately 25% of the major league players are Latin, it is very likely that some of the players on the Provo team will make the major leagues. It makes no sense why the major league club doesn’t spend more resources in supporting the Latin players, most of which are in their late teens and in a foreign culture.
While McCarthy demonstrates some occasional competence as a pitcher, he never really rises above the level of mediocre. It is fortunate that he is a talented biologist that attends medical school after is baseball career is over. Which only lasts a year. There is no great game at the end, this story is about the grind, how McCarthy survives it and actually learns from it. So does the reader.

[Jon Tran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Odd Man Out is a straight-forward, no frills recollection of Matt McCarthy's brief time with the Provo Angels, the minor league affiliate of the Anaheim Angels. With each notable person McCarthy encounters during his time in the Angels, the only aim seems to be to capture the worst interaction he had with each person. Whether it's his teammates' only question to him about his time at Yale and girls he knew there being whether they were sl*ts or the same teammates who high-fived each other and taunted a high school girl who forgot a verse of the Star Spangled Banner before a game, you'd be hard-pressed to count on one hand the positive interactions Matt shares. I'm not sure if this approach was to go for a shock-and-awe insight into the gritty, raunchy underbelly of minor league baseball, but as no particular story was especially shocking nor raunchy these stories instead left you thinking these guys are simply a bunch of jackasses.

There were a few interesting tidbits sprinkled between the uncomfortable chats with his teammates and coaches, first of all being his run-ins with future MLB players - including Prince Fielder, Bobby Jenks, Chris Young, Derrick Turnbow, and Manny Parra. I did also enjoy the moments that McCarthy reflected on his ups and downs with his own pitching performance during his one minor league season and the following spring training he logged. Unfortunately, both of these interesting aspects of the book were explored few and far between McCarthy's main focus of putting his teammates and coaches in a bad light.

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat interesting tale of a low draft choice's one season in rookie ball. More accurately, though, the book should be subtitled "A Year in Which I Demonstrated That I am Too Good for Baseball and Did I Mention That I went to Yale?"

Despite some candor about the boozing and whoring that goes on off the field, the book positively oozes condescension as the author can barely conceal his disdain for his coaches and fellow teammates. Very telling that he mentions that he went to Yale a lot more than he ever discusses what he did to get better as a pitcher. In fact, in the winter after rookie ball ended and before spring training began in Arizona, he tells us that he had an internship splicing genes. No mention of his baseball preparation. And you'd think that since his fastball velocity went from barely touching 90 to the mid-80s by the end of the season, he should have recognized that as probably both conditioning and technique issues. Guess he didn't really want to be a pro player after all. So, in the end, the real purpose of the book is to tell you how awful the minor leagues are and how awesome he is. Oh, and he went to Harvard Medical School!

If you are true baseball fan and curious about the lesser-known aspects of minor league life (Oh, those bus trips! Yuck!), it's a quick read. Otherwise, pass on this tribute to self-regard.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only read the first chapter, but that was all that needed to be read, it was the whole story and it was not a baseball story. It was clear, right off the bat, that baseball was never going to have an impact on how this guy's life would turn out, and, I think to his credit, he never pretended here, to believe otherwise. Here is this guy, probably had private coaches his whole, likely went to the best baseball camps in the country, in high school, his folks paid the private school tuition to get him in the best baseball program available, and from these, they ponied up year after year college tuition again so he could play ball.
But you can spend all you want, buy all the training and all the opportunity in the world, you cannot buy the heart of an athlete. As soon he got to the level that winning became more about having desire than having money, he was one and done. You can call it a baseball career, but you might also call it a gap year, time away from school between college and medical school. And, as far as a gap year goes, his folks were probably thinking no matter how much his year in Utah cost them, he was safer there than hitch-hiking barefoot around Europe for a year or some other damn fool thing.

[Terry Heller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: Matt is a friend (and one of the smartest people I met in college). His book about a year in the rookie leagues -- the lowest level of competitive minor league baseball - in which players earn $800/month, players stay with host families or live five to a three-bedroom apartment to get by, and players fill 17-hour bus rides with low-stakes poker, blue humor, and fitful sleep. The comparisons to Ball Four are deserved, except that even the lowly expansion team Jim Bouton played for had it easy compared to the Provo Angels.

The book was published a decade ago, but is about the 2002 season. reading it 17 years after the events in the story, we have the spoilers about how Matt's minor-league teammates and opponents, like Eric Aybar, Ervin Santana, Bobby Jenks, Prince Fielder, and Joe Saunders turned out. His friend Craig Breslow would pitch in the majors until 2017. Matt is now a doctor, a leading expert in the field of infectious disease, and the author of two other books: The Real Doctor Will See You Now and Superbugs, both of which are excellent.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

“There were a dozen Dominicans on our team, hailing from Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Panama, and, yes, the Dominican Republic.”

Yep, ignorant racism in the locker room, and it runs through this book quite a bit. Lots of stereotypes and derogatory comments, but I will say that the thing that Aybar and Callaspo did with the hot dog buns...

That aside, I really liked this book! It seems so genuine and real, and I felt like I was right along with McCarthy on his year in single A. The story is post 9/11, pre-“Moneyball”, and right as the big league club is on their way to the World Series! There are so many good parts! The conversation about whether or not to use steroids is so insightful! And I loved, loved, loved Kotchman! AND his Rally Penis!!! Dude should have his own book! And poor Matt, a born-again virgin! Really? Come on!!!
If you like baseball, this is a really good read! I'm going to recommend it... a lot!

[Noel P. Roby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed Odd Man Out, by Matt McCarthy. The lead up to college baseball choices, I remember those days. I remember playing college baseball and trying to go to classes and it was hard work. I remember taking road trips with my teammates and laughing all the way to and from the fields. I remember the day I said to myself, I can't do this anymore, I need to focus on a career - and heck I didn't even play professional baseball! Matt McCarthy's tale of his baseball and life journey is a must read for any baseball player and their family. Read his journey to baseball glory, how he handled failure, how he pivoted to another path after baseball. It is must read material for the baseball fan!

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read at the beach. Some good baseball tales, even if the culture (and baseball) has moved on a little bit from the time it was published more than a dozen years ago, to say nothing of the 20 since the story takes place. I think, reading some of the other reviews, people want some sort of exposé as opposed to a well-told tale. I liked it. Also--I hope this is the last book I ever read thanking Ron DeSantis in the acknowledgements (a teammate of the author's at Yale, who does not appear in the story).

[Gary Rosenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matt McCarthy is a gifted writer. I will read whatever he writes. I love spending time with his easy to follow, insightful and breezy storytelling.

A year in the minors rings so true, and his honesty concerning his own talent is attractive. I believe every character, even if they are largely based on real life, if you get my drift.

His other book is terrific too. Ya know, he's a doctor now. Keep writing, Doc!